18 Things You Miss By Constantly Staring At Your Smartphone

Most people would find it hard to imagine a world without gadgets and computers that we feel so accustomed to today – it’s really difficult to even grasp the shift technology has caused and what effect it has on human behaviour and even mental activity.

We are now programmed by society to be constantly attached to our devices. Every single activity such as meeting with friends, enjoying a meal, or going out for a jog revolves around our smartphones.

This magnetic attachment has resulted in our inability to really experience life to the fullest. The recently released “Look Up” video, posted below, illustrates the point well. We have many friends on social media, but few or none that are close, and instead of creating memories of the things we experience, we post status updates of them, creating a virtual world while abandoning reality.

Here are some of the big and little things that we miss out on by constantly staring at our smartphones:

Appreciating your surroundings. When walking around with your eyes glued to your smartphone, you never have a chance to just stop and feel the surrounding world for what it really is or experience the sounds and sights to the fullest.

Your own thoughts. Have you ever considered taking a deeper look into your own mind? Constantly bombarding it with meaningless information or virtual activities, you may even lose track of who you really are.

An interesting conversation. People are around you every day, whether you notice them or not. And many of them have interesting things to say, which, unless you put down your smartphone, you will never hear.

A new acquaintance. Meeting new people is one of the better experiences in life, yet you throw it away when your main interest is the newsfeed of your social media contacts.

The taste of a delicious meal. What happened to the old fashioned way of actually enjoying the food when eating? It seems that we sometimes care more about what Instagram effect to use for the picture of your food instead of focusing on tasting the flavour.

Traffic signs. Sometimes too much time on your smartphone can not only be harmful to your mind, but to your body as well. A missed traffic sign because you were texting can ruin or even end your life really quickly.

A true emotional connection. Perhaps the biggest fault of the smart-technology age is that it has drastically hindered people’s ability to establish a meaningful/emotional connection. Everything is quickly becoming very superficial and a real closeness to someone nowadays is kind of rare.

Interesting everyday experiences. There’s a world of things happening around you every second of your life, so it’s only up to you if you’re willing to lift your eyes up and see what’s going on.

A smile from a child. There are few more beautiful things than a child smiling simply because he’s happy. It can be a great inspiration, one missed out on by those who choose to rather play Doodle Jump.

The beauty of nature. It doesn’t even have to be complete wilderness; sometimes it’s enough to go for a walk at the park to feel completely rejuvenated.

The lives of people close to you. Sometimes the severity of people’s addiction to their virtual lives can be so severe, that they actually become detached from the lives of people closest to them.

Love at first sight. It’s really pretty simple – if you don’t look up once in a while, you will definitely miss out on what could be the love of your life standing at the street corner.

A flight of stairs. Once again, it’s not just emotional harm that smartphone’s might cause – going down a flight of stairs because you didn’t see it can cause quite a lot of physical pain as well.

A cosy little bakery. You might have walked your hometowns streets a million times, but there’s always something new there to discover, like a cute bakery with the best cupcakes in town.

Time. Most things on this list can be achieved if you just put down your smartphone more often, but one thing’s out of reach forever – time you’ve already wasted on your smart device.

Eating proper amounts. Just as when watching TV, when doing stuff on your smartphone while eating, you risk overeating on most meals because you simply do not feel when you’re full. That can quickly lead to obesity.

Trying out new things. We are not put on this earth to be staring at a small screen, so it’s absurd to think just how many people choose that instead of pushing themselves to constantly be trying out new things.

Life. Finally, the most important thing you miss when constantly staring at your phone is your life. So if you don’t want it to be defined by your Facebook updates and Instagram photos, put the damn thing down already and go start experiencing the world around you.

Posted by Christy Root

Christy root is a blogger representing Prepaymania that writes about the latest technological advances and news. She has years of experience in writing about a wide range of tech topics, notably specialising in covering all mobile and smart-technology related stories.